People
by Seirin
Summary: The war with titans has always been extremely hard. How can one find strength to move forward when the war becomes even harder?/ Fanfic takes place after chapter 51 and it contains spoilers!


I'm warning you that English isn't my mother tongue, so be ready for errors. Secondly, this fanfic contains spoilers from chapter 51.

* * *

People.

The enemy was people.

Hanji, feeling that her legs are starting to tremble, sat in the stable, wooden chair, which had gently creaked under her weight. Only a half hour earlier she told Levi that right now it was impossible to check whether this new discovery was true or not. She was a scientist. She knew better than anyone that without experiments you can't prove correctness of even the most genius thesis. Nevertheless, as soon as in her mind appeared the thought that objects of all of her experiments were human beings, she couldn't stop the feeling of numbness. She was watching her table full of papers filled with her chaotic notes.

All of them were connected to people.

She stabbed her swords into creatures which were… people.

She put her hands on the table and leaned her forehead against them.

Wasn't this fight hard enough? On every single mission soldiers were losing their life. In order to discover a little piece of truth they had to pay the highest price. Of course, they moved forward, but the closer they were getting to answers for multiple questions, the road before them was becoming muddier and muddier, and the fog surrounding them was thickening. For the second time since she joined Recon Corps she felt a fear. What discoveries will they be forced to deal with? How deep will they be forced to hide their humanity to lead mankind to the victory?

Suddenly she heard a rhythmic knock on the door. Hanji didn't even look at the door. She spoke only three words:

'Come in Levi.'

After a quiet scraping of the door she heard silent steps of the short corporal. After a while her ears recognized the sound of creaking of an old armchair, the only furniture which wasn't occupied by a pile of papers.

'As always your room is a mess, Shitty Glasses.' He stated with his normal brusque tone.

Hanji turned around in his direction.

'You are mistaken. All of those notes are in perfect order. For everybody who knows my special code, that's a perfect data base.' She responded.

'Only such a messy person like you can think of something like that.'

Lips of the woman curved into a small smile.

'Shouldn't you be on way to your new squad?'

'I'm departing tomorrow in the morning.'

'I see.'

For a while they remained silent. Both of them fixed their eyes on the floor and immersed theirselves in their thoughts.

'Hanji' Asked Levi after several minutes, not rising his head. 'Is that really possible, that the enemy of people was, from the very beginning, people?' His face was as always stoic, but the brunette couldn't not notice the glint in his eyes. Exactly the same she saw in the day of death of Auro, Erd, Gunther and Petra.

'I've told you: right now we can't prove that every titan we thought was a person. It's possible that only the group of titans from Ragako was people.' In this moment she craved to believe she was telling the truth. 'Maybe it was such an intermediate form between titan shifters and other titans…'

'I see.' He remarked without conviction in his voice.

She knew perfectly what the man was thinking about. For many years they had been called the humanity's hope, but in light of the latest facts they could be called the murderers as well…

Hanji stood up and she approached the dark-haired corporal. She crouched before him before she looked in his eyes.

'Levi, even if it's the truth it doesn't have any influence on what we are supposed to do…'

'Are you trying to convince about it me or yourself, Shitty Glasses?' He interrupted her. His relentless steel-blue eyes seemed to penetrate through her soul.

The squad leader sighed heavily and smiled sourly.

'Maybe both of us?' The woman crossed her arms on his knees, after which she leaned her head on them. Several second later she tilted her head a bit. 'But I know that no one has a right to judge us…'

'Apart from ourselves?' He finished. 'It isn't a big comfort when we are the harshest judges for ourselves, don't you think?'

The woman remained silent. Yes, that was Levi for you. Always and everywhere he was telling what was on his mind, refusing to give in gentle and comfortable lies even if he could let himself to do so. A lot of people found such behavior cold and rough. But for Hanji it was one of the constants in her life, thanks to which she could regain her internal balance. Since she formulated the conclusion that the true identity of titans could be people, her thoughts were connected to objects of her experiments. Sawney, the creature which heart she stabbed her sword in could have taken care of his wife and daughter. Maybe they eye of Bean, she so joyfully pierced through, could have belong to some young boy looking in the future with hope… But Levi with his cold and rational questions defeated all of her arguments, forcing her to deal with the cruel truth eye to eye.

She smiled warmly. And one could have thought that he was the one who came to her in search of comfort.

After a moment the man, not breaking the silence, leaned his forehead against her head.

In this situation words which could sooth debts of human heart didn't exist, but this gesture replaced everything they couldn't verbalize. The stable heart beat, the rhythmic breathing, the warmth of human body made them remember they were still alive. And if they were still alive they had to move forward. It was their obligation towards those who loose their life today, yesterday, one year ago, 100 years ago. The proximity of second human being made them realize what they were fighting for. And why they couldn't stop.


End file.
